The Night Shift
By Hannah Bertalot
“Good evening, Viktor!” Vani greets with a friendly wave, returned by the half-asleep night guard watching the wall of cameras in the security office.
“Have a good shift, Vani,” he replies drowsily, lifting his bored gaze to look at her through the security window as she walks by, grabbing her keycard from the shelf.
The beginning of Vani’s shift is marked by the deft swipe of the keycard over a scanner, a robotic beep echoing as she clocks in. Then, she marches through the heavy security doors on her way out of the employee-only entrance. It has been a while since she has been put on a night shift, as Vani prefers to work during the museum's open hours.
However, her coworker had called out sick on short notice, so her father urged her to pick up the slack. While she feigns vexation at her father’s insistence, Vani sighs fondly as she starts her circuits through the museum’s various galleries.
When she was young, she always admired the museum cast in the moonlight—on the rare occasions that her father allowed her to stay up past her bedtime to work the night shift with him.
Her childhood trails after her in brief flashes of memories while she tunes out the silent walk through the museum, her own history weaving in with the history of the much older artifacts within the ancient walls.
It feels less like she was at work and more like walking down memory lane—school field trips where she knew as much as the tour guides, chasing her friends around the galleries while waiting for her father to get off work and take her home for the day.
One of the long museum hallways ends in an octagonally shaped room, the walls running high over her head with old windows that allowed ample lighting to shine in on the intricately carved centerpiece—a crane fountain spewing sparkling water from its bill. Water pools at its feet, rippling peacefully. She takes a few steps closer and stares into the pool reminiscently. It feels like yesterday when she was last here with her best friend, Marv.
The usual quiet buzz of guests in the museum was one of the only sounds besides that of a young girl as she prattled on about a particular painting they were standing in front of. She points to the acrylic painting, “And this is the Old Forest, which was right here before the museum was built!” She explained matter-of-factly to a similarly aged boy, who stared up at the large canvas with a glimmer of wonder in his eye.
“Whoa, really? Why’d they cut the forest down to build the museum, though?” He asked.
“My Pa said that my great-great… uh… how many was it? Like, my great-grandpa’s great-grandpa built it a long time ago to protect all the artifacts that others found and brought to the museum! Because it’s important to preserve our history so that everyone can see how important it is and we don’t accidentally repeat ourselves! Because Pa said that’s a bad thing sometimes, I think.”
The little boy nodded, looking from her and back at the painting, then following along as she led the way to more sculptures. Vani showed off the oldest parts of the museum, proudly parroting anything she recalled from the countless times she had followed tour guides around the museum.
“And this is the Fountain of Apollo! One of the most important things here! It’s like… a thousand years old, I think!” She says, gesturing up at the grand fountain. “That’s the Sapphire of Apollo!” She points to the blue gem embedded in the bird’s chest. “Pa said it could heal people if they used it correctly.”
“Wow… really?” Marvey said, awestruck. He reached out to grab it, and Vani quickly pulled him away.
“Huh?” He asked, looking a little confused.
“No, no! We can’t touch it! It’s very fragile, Pa said! We could break the Sapphire and the statue if we tried to take it out!” Vani explains shrilly.
“Oh… that makes sense. Okay then... Sorry.”
“That’s okay; you didn’t know.”
Soon after, while they were exploring the museum, an elderly lady on a walker arrived, and she waved Marvey over.
“Aw… Grandma says it’s time to go.” The little boy said sadly, waving goodbye as he ran over to her. “See you later, Vani!” He called over his shoulder.
“Bye, Marv! I’ll see you soon!”
Vani wasn’t sure what had become of her best friend since that day. He had fallen out of touch, and she could only move forward since he stopped attending school.
The clumsy sound of something heavy falling over snaps Vani back to the present quickly, and she whips her head toward the source, her flashlight following along to track the retreating figure of a person as they hide behind a statue.
The night guard quickly shifts gears and returns to work. “The museum’s closed. What are you doing here still?” she calls.
Instead of an answer, she hears rushing footsteps around the statue the intruder was hiding behind. A moment later, she sees their silhouette as they dart down a hall. She quietly mumbles an expletive as she gives chase, charging after them.
“Viktor!” She yells, holding her radio up to her mouth. “Call the cops! We’ve got an intruder!”
Somewhere along the way, she loses track of the intruder, their retreating form swallowed by the vast expanse of winding corridors. As noise inevitably carries throughout the silent museum, Vani pauses, listening closely as she tries to hear their echoing footsteps. She holds her breath momentarily, then takes off like a bloodhound with a scent when she hears distant footsteps heading toward the fountain.
Upon reaching the cavernous room again, the intruder mortifies her as she sees them climb the fountain. They wrap their hands around the neck of the crane while they leverage themself up to reach the Sapphire of Apollo.
“Stop! You can’t climb on the fountain! You’ll risk breaking it!” She yells, precariously following after them to pull them off the fountain. Upon getting closer, she recognizes the familiar features of a face she once knew well staring back at her. The intruder also recognizes her, losing the expeditious quality in his manner. He hesitates, and she uses that split second to grab his shoulders and rip him away from the fountain, getting the sapphire safely out of his reach. Once they’re away from the fountain, she turns to him.
“Marv?” Vani asks softly, her voice wavering as she hesitates and releases him, backing away a few steps.
“What are you doing here?” The feeling of betrayal is strong, wrenching her gut as she stares at him.
Marv stares back, nowhere to run from what he’d done now that she caught him. He didn’t answer, only continuing to stare at her with guilty eyes. He didn’t need to say a word for her to read him.
Her voice is only a murmur, “You’re… stealing. From the museum.”
“I promise I can explain,” He says, almost desperate for her to hear him out as he puts his hands out in a submissive gesture. “I—I have to take the sapphire, and I know this looks bad, but it’s- it’s-” He looks conflicted, taking a breath to pull himself together.
“I need to take the sapphire to help my grandmother,” he tries again. “She’s sick—cursed, and the only way we can help her is if I take the sapphire and use its purifying properties to break the curse.” He explains as briefly as possible.
Vani stares at him. “Fine. Take it, then. But I won’t forgive you for coming in here and breaking my—” Not even just hers. “My family’s trust.” She responds icily.
The sound of footsteps rushing toward the scene cues Vani to turn away, refusing to watch as she hears Marvey slowly walk back toward the fountain, then the sound of stone resisting as he tugs at the Sapphire of Apollo, freeing it from the ancient sculpture.
She exits the grand chamber, pointing the police in the right direction to go and get the thief in the other room.
“Freeze! Don’t move!”
Vani pauses to listen, sighing as she leans against a wall and buries her face in her hands.
“He’s armed! Put your weapon down!”
She will never hear another sentence that chills her blood so efficiently. She will never hear another sound that breaks her heart more than the sound of gunshots, as the smaller crash of what was unmistakably the Sapphire of Apollo shattering follows, and the thud of someone she used to know.